Source : The Hindu Date : 15.06.2009
Samiti team for Delhi to seek amendment to Article 371
Special Correspondent
GULBARGA: The Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti on Sunday decided to lead a delegation of the leaders of the region to New Delhi during the next Parliament session to renew its demand for amendment of Article 371 of the Constitution to provide special reservation for the people of the region in employment and educational opportunities.
The executive committee meeting of the samiti, in which its representatives from Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur and Koppal districts participated, decided to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Union Ministers from Karnataka, and MPs from the State to plead for the early amendment of the Article 371.
Samiti president and former Minister Vaijnath Patil told presspersons that the meeting unanimously elected senior leader of the region and freedom fighter Bheemanna Khandre as the honorary president of the samiti in place of the late Vishwanath Reddy Mudnal.
Memorandum
Mr. Patil said the meeting decided to meet Union Labour Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge and the former Chief Minister and Bidar MP N. Dharam Singh in Gulbarga during their visit to the city on June 20 and present a memorandum seeking their personal intervention in the matter and persuade the Union Government to concede the demand for amendment of Article 371.
He said that the samiti would meet Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa during his visit to the city on June 19 to participate in the Vikas Sankalp Yatra and present a memorandum seeking his intervention to bring pressure on the Union Government on the issue.
‘We are confident’
Mr. Patil said: “We are confident that the UPA Government at the Centre will amend Article 371 before November 1 this year and fulfil the long-pending demand of the region”.
During the election tour in Gulbarga, AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had broached on the subject and promised that Article 371 would be amended if UPA returned to power at the Centre.
Mr Patil said that the representatives from other districts wanted the samiti to revive its demand for a separate statehood as they had no hopes of the Centre conceding the demand for amendment to Article 371.
